This blog will be a journal of my personal poker goals and my attempts to lea...

February 04, 2015

Just a week after I had my goals and a plan set before me, I'm going to have to switch things up due to a couple of factors. First and foremost, I had an unexpected family crisis arise and that has to be my main focus for the time being. This doesn't mean "no poker", but it does mean that I won't be able to put the time and effort into learning GTO play that I had hoped. That's going to go on the back burner until after the summer most likely. So that's the bad news.

My other reason, is more of an opportunity. I had someone approach me who would like to buy up a bunch of my action at the WSOP this year. This is kind of a big deal for me, as I'm not a professional (limited bankroll and limited backers), and this will only be my second year going (last summer was my first). This enables me to play more tournaments and increase my time spent there. He knows that I'm a cash game player, and his only condition was that I put more time and effort into tournaments in the months leading up to the series.

Being a man of my word, I am going to play tournaments for the next few months. I'll also have to put some study time in. I need to find some video series to watch as well. Not really sure where to start for MTTs though. I tried watching YugioPro, but that guy is all over the place, and I need something more structured to work with. Anyway, if someone has suggestions, I'm all ears. I'll be playing the Black Diamond Open series on Bovada starting on the 17th of this month, and whatever I have time for until then. As far as cash games go, I'll just stick to my usual games for the time being (Stud games and O8).

Doug

Posted By dougbug808 at 01:23 AM

January 29, 2015

First things first, the purpose of this blog is to be a reminder of my goals and to document my progress. If any of you decide to follow along or comment on anything, it's just gravy. I have played poker for 9 years now, mostly live. I currently play and have been staked at live $2/5 and $5/10 cash games (NLHE, PLO, and Big O), as well as some of the smaller WSOP tournaments during the summer. I have been very successful in live cash games and have a very high win rate. I have always surrounded myself with people who are positive and have helped me improve my play. It's not my full-time job, but it's always been a nice supplementary income and has allowed me to do things that I couldn't have otherwise. Besides, I love the game. I have never tried to make it my primary income, just because I have children and my wife needs more stability than that. I can't really blame her there. That being said, I have decided to take the time this year to make the next logical step in my game.

I've played online off and on, but haven't really taken it as seriously as I could have. Before Black Friday, I played some mixed games on Full Tilt and tournaments on Poker Stars. Since then, I've dabbled in HU cash, sit n goes, tournaments, PLO, you name it, until I get bored. Always small stakes though, as I haven't put the necessary work into my game that would be needed in order to win in the bigger games. I play a very exploitive style, which is great in soft, live games, but I know I'd get crushed by the regs at higher stakes online. I've watched talented players like WiltOnTilt play on their training videos and their thought processes are very advanced. I have no illusions here. I already know that I'd need to learn a more GTO style of play to survive in today's tougher games online.

I've lurked here on DC for a little while, but mostly just for entertainment purposes, and watched training videos to learn how to play the mixed games better. Now, I have decided to take the leap and learn a more theoretical approach to the game. I'm prepared to strip my Hold Em game down to the bare bones and start again from square one. This means a few things. I have to set myself a play/study schedule and stick to it. I'll also need a logical course of learning to follow and goals to keep me focused and moving forward. I have accounts on Bovada and ACR, so that's where I'm going to be playing. I also have Bovada Hand Converter, Hold Em Indicator, and Holdem Manager 2, so I can track my play and do hand history reviews for both sites.

My goals for this month will be to watch in order: "Mathematics of NLHE" and "Blah Blah GTO". I'm going to have no distractions and take notes on the things that I learn. If I finish these, the next series on my list will be "Applied Game Theory". I will post questions on the videos that I watch, as well as begin posting hands in the forum after session reviews. I'm going to become proficient at using Card Runners EV while studying hands. I'll be playing only 50NL and 100NL to start off, and shoot for 20K hands per month. In order to accomplish all of this, I'll need a schedule. This is a rough draft of my weekly schedule so far: Sunday, Thursday, Friday: cash games for 2 hours followed by 30 minute hand reviews. Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday: 1 hour of a training video w/ note-taking followed by 1 hour of cash games. If I'm playing well and can see improvements in my game, I'll move up a level after a month or two. If any of you have made it this far, please feel free to say hello or make suggestions in the comments.